Phase-ordering kinetics in the Allen-Cahn (Model A) class: Universal aspects elucidated by electrically induced...

The two-dimensional (2D) Ising model is the statistical physics textbook example for phase transitions and their kinetics. Quenched through the Curie point with Glauber rates, the late-time description of the ferromagnetic domain coarsening finds its place at the scalar sector of the Allen-Cahn (or Model A) class, which encompasses phase-ordering kinetics endowed with a nonconserved order parameter. Resisting exact results sought for theoreticians since Lifshitz's first account in 1962, the central quantities of 2D Model A-most scaling exponents and correlation functions-remain known up to approximate theories whose disparate outcomes urge experimental assessment. Here we perform such assessment based on a comprehensive study of the coarsening of 2D twisted nematic liquid crystals whose kinetics is induced by a superfast electrical switching from a spatiotemporally chaotic (disordered) state to a two-phase concurrent, equilibrium one. Tracking the dynamics via optical microscopy, we first show the sharp evidence of well-established Model A aspects, such as the dynamic exponent z=2 and the dynamic scaling hypothesis, to then move forward. We confirm the Bray-Humayun theory for Porod's regime describing intradomain length scales of the two-point spatial correlators and show that their nontrivial decay beyond the Porod's scale can be captured in a free-from-parameter fashion by Gaussian theories, namely the Ohta-Jasnow-Kawasaki (OJK) and Mazenko theories. Regarding time-related statistics, we corroborate the aging hypothesis in Model A systems, which includes the collapse of two-time correlators into a master curve whose format is, actually, best accounted for by a solution of the local scaling invariance theory: the same solution that fits the 2D nonconserved Ising model correlator along with the Fisher-Huse conjecture. We also suggest the true value for the local persistence exponent in Model A class, in disfavor of the exact outcome for the diffusion and OJK equations. Finally, we observe a fractal morphology for persistence clusters and extract their universal dimension. Given its accuracy and possibilities, this experimental setup may work as a prototype to address further universality issues in the realm of nonequilibrium systems.